A Great Day in Harlem

A Great Day in Harlem or Harlem 1958 is a black-and-white photograph of 57 jazz musicians in Harlem, New York, taken by freelance photographer Art Kane for Esquire magazine on August 12, 1958. The idea for the photo came from Esquire's art director, Robert Benton, rather than Kane. However, after being given the commission, it seems that Kane was responsible for choosing the location for the shoot. The subjects are shown at 17 East 126th Street, between Fifth and Madison Avenue, where police had temporarily blocked off traffic. Published as the centerfold of the January 1959 ("Golden Age of Jazz") issue of Esquire, the image was captured with a Hasselblad camera, and earned Kane his first Art Directors Club of New York gold medal for photography. It has been called "the most iconic photograph in jazz history," and is a credited artistic inspiration that led to Gordon Parks' 1998 XXL-commissioned "A Great Day in Hip Hop" homage to Harlem, forty years later, and Patrick Nichols' subsequent 2024 AGO-commissioned Canadian spinoff, "A Great Day in Toronto Hip Hop."

The scene portrayed through Kane’s photograph is something of an anachronism, as by 1957 Harlem was no longer the "hotbed" of jazz it had been in the 1940s, and had "forfeited its place in sun" to 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. Many musicians who were formerly resident in the area had already moved to middle-class parts of New York, or did so shortly thereafter. Kane himself was not that certain who would turn up on the day, as Esquire staff had merely issued a general invitation through the local musicians' union, recording studios, music writers, and nightclub owners.

In 2018, a book was published to mark the 60th anniversary of the event, with forewords by Quincy Jones and Benny Golson, and an introduction by Kane's son, Jonathan.

Following the death of Benny Golson in September 2024, Sonny Rollins is the last living adult musician featured in the photograph. Interviewed for a December 2024 article in The New York Times, Rollins gave his view of the photograph's significance at that time, when racism and segregation was pervasive: "It just seemed like we weren't appreciated ... mainly because jazz was a Black art. I think that picture humanized a lot of the myth of what people thought jazz was."